A builder who murdered two mothers and described himself as a “psychopath with a conscience” has been sentenced to two life terms in prison.

Mark Brown was found guilty in December of murdering Leah Ware and Alexandra Morgan in 2021. 

Brown, 41, was sentenced by Judge Justice Nicholas Hilliard today in his absence after he refused to attend Hove Crown Court.

Mr Justice Hilliard gave him two life sentences, to be served concurrently with a minimum term of 49 years.

Brown killed Ms Ware and Ms Morgan at a remote farm near St Leonards after meeting them through a sex work website. He murdered Ms Ware in May 2021 and Ms Morgan six months later in November.

Brown put Ms Morgan, 34, head first into a homemade incinerator before dumping her remains.

The body of Ms Ware, 33, has never been found, but the prosecution believe Brown used a similar method, and also killed her Pomeranian dog, Lady.

The jury of ten men and two women took ten and a half hours to convict Brown of both murder charges.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Wolstenholme, of Sussex Police, said the force would speak to Brown as soon as possible after the verdict to try to persuade him to say what happened to Ms Ware’s remains.

Brown met Ms Ware in 2018 when he hired her as an escort and they developed a relationship.

He killed her on or around May 7 2021 after tensions grew when she pressed him to leave his partner of 14 years, the court was told.

In the six months between killing Ms Ware and Ms Morgan, Brown messaged a friend, calling himself a “psychopath with a conscience” and saying: “I’m going to be very careful how I word this – it happened again, not very long ago when disposing of something.

“It’s a very unpleasant thing to do – an old oil drum, five litres of diesel, and hey presto, there’s not very much left.

“It gets hot, very hot, it glows almost white.

“The things I have done weigh heavily on my heart, on my head and my soul. A psychopath with a conscience – it’s a joke really.”

The jury decided the message referred to Brown disposing of Ms Ware’s remains.

Brown hired Ms Morgan for sex about a dozen times before offering her an escorting job worth £100,000 in October 2021.

But when she visited Little Bridge Farm, the site he rented, the next month, he killed her and burned her body in an incinerator.

He then dumped her remains in a skip at the building site where he worked in Sevenoaks, Kent.

Brown, of Squirrel Close in St Leonards, claimed Ms Morgan died in an accident at the farm after hitting her head when she slipped in his workshop.

He said he burned her body “in a panic”.

He told the jury he and Ms Ware broke up in early 2021 and, as far as he knew, she was still alive.